Goode backs shorter tours and smaller squads

Following the controversy prompted by Sean O’Brien’s comments last week, and an announcement that the number of games on the next British & Irish Lions tour in 2021 will be reduced to eight, Andy Goode believes that a reduced squad size would also lead to a more harmonious tour.

“You get discontent on a Lions tour because you take too many players. If you reduce the number of games and take fewer players, everyone will feel more involved,” he said, speaking on The Rugby Pod this week.

“If you’re taking 40-odd players on a tour, you’re never going to be able to integrate them all completely. If you take a smaller squad and play a more concentrated amount of games, so four warm-up games, then you don’t have that disparity.”

O’Brien’s started all three Tests and scored one of the greatest Lions tries of all-time in the first Test but has criticised elements of the coaching on tour and suggested that the Lions should have won the series “comfortably”.

He was critical of the preparations for the first Test in Auckland, something Warren Gatland himself has acknowledged wasn’t ideal, and also revealed that Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell had more of an impact on the attacking game plan than attack coach Rob Howley for the second and third Tests.

His comments have caused uproar in some quarters and prompted a flurry of headlines from ex-players accusing him of letting the Lions down and even of “sporting insanity” but Goode thinks they have been misinterpreted and that he should be able to air his opinions.

“If you actually listen to and read what Sean O’Brien said, I think the way it has been portrayed is outrageous in terms of the message that has come across in the press,” said the 17-cap former England international, who was reportedly on the standby list for the 2005 Lions tour to New Zealand.

“They’ve been talking about Howley being garbage, how he couldn’t control Farrell and Sexton and the attacking game plan was all over the place and Gatland wasn’t great either.

“If you actually listen to it or digest the whole piece, I think it’s been misconstrued massively and why shouldn’t he have an opinion?”